If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Hi all!
Man, it's been quite a while since I've started a progress thread. I'm actually kind of nervous. . . is that weird?
With everything going on the past few months I've been amazingly busy learning the ropes in my new unit and setting up our new house, but I've been wanting to tackle a new Fett project for some time now. I've always liked the looks of the PP1 helmet, the version with those cool looking eyes painted on the dome, and for my birthday this year my wife got me a Bobamaker deluxe helmet kit. She rocks! I ordered the "dentless" version from DAZ and it arrived yesterday (2 days from the UK to Virginia!! ) and although I own many of his Boba pieces, this is my first experience with one of his helmets. The kit is just fantastic! As with all the other hard parts I've gotten from him, everything comes cut/sanded/smoothed/finished/trimmed/primed and basically ready to paint right out of the box!
Here's an overall shot of my new soon-to-be PP1 with my TerminalFettler PP3 helmet and my FPH ESB. The sizes are fairly comparable, with the FPH being a bit larger overall.

Just another couple of angles of my 3 boys.

Here are a couple of closer shots of the kit's parts. Again, I have done nothing to the components. . . these are right outta the box.

The RF parts (I have press fit them together for this pic). I had ordered the 'deluxe' RF as part of my order, and it came like this. Fully assembled, painted, with 2 non-functional red LEDs. Very nice satin black finish.

Here's the circuit board part, which fits very nicely behind the keyslots.

To top it all off is a well formed smoked visor.

A very comprehensive kit, eh?
So I hope to have some pics soon as I begin to paint this baby! Watch this thread for more.
Thanks for looking!

Yeah, I'm looking forward to painting something that's not a wall for a change.
As far as the wavy brow goes, not sure exactly, but the reference pics show the same 3 gouges in the face (left cheek, left mandible, upper right "brow") as the ESB helmet. If the helmets were pulled from the same mold, I would think they'd share most of the same characteristics.

OK, off to a good start here. The following pics show the first 2 stages. I first masked off the helmet except for the keyslot area and painted it with Floquil Foundation. It's a similar color to Concrete, like on the ESB helmet. Once I get all the colors on and begin to do some pastel weathering, the tone of this color will shift slightly.

Once the Foundation was dry I masked it off along with the bulk of the helmet, leaving the rear panels and right ear exposed. This was airbrushed with Polly Scale Intermediate Blue.

As you can see in the second pic, I did not mask off my hand.

The next step will be rather time-consuming as I will have to make tracings/templates for the damage on the rear panels. This will be much trickier than working on my usual ESB paint jobs because the reference isn't nearly as comprehensive. I'll have to use what I have and try to extrapolate for the curvature of the helmet. Once I get that done, a dark green will be airbrushed on.

Speaking of colors, I just want to pause here and give a huge thank you to Ryan (Boba Phat aka Mojoday) who took the time through many PMs and emails to give me some invaluable input on the PP1 color scheme. He even went so far as to send me a color chip of an unusual Floquil color.
Thanks, Ryan! :thumbup

Moving right along here. Got the damage areas traced out and applied some W/N masking fluid to the areas to remain Intermediate Blue. Sprayed on some Polly Scale CNW Green. This is a very "rich" looking green compared to what I'm used to on the ESB, but it looks great.
Here it is freshly sprayed. Gotta give it a few more hours to unmask.
Sorry for the picture quality. It's dark here now and I only have one ceiling light in the hobby room. Don't want to use the flash as it will blow everything out.

Hope the masking fluid did its job! I'll post pics later when it's all removed.

Man, what a crazy storm we've been having! Lots of people around the Hampton Roads area have suffered storm damage and are without power. We had our power flicker a couple of times last night, but it never went out.

UPDATE: Nov 13th

I actually did this last night, but it was late and didn't snap the pics till this morning.
Took a handy rubber cement eraser and went over the masking fluid on the rear panels. It rolled off pretty well to reveal the Intermediate Blue. I'm happy with the results.
Here are 2 shots.

Now here's a pic comparing the right panel with one of the only four reference pics I used to lay out the damage patterns. I'm not a huge photography expert, but I tried to match angles as best I could.
Pretty close? Still a little tweaking to do, and I need to add some silver chips, too.

Yeah, I kinda get all amped up when I have a new project to work on. We were off work yesterday due to the storm so i had some time to work on it, too.

MM, so far the colors I've used are: Floquil Foundation (keyslots), Polly Scale Intermediate Blue (rear panels--light), Polly Scale CNW Green (rear panels--dark).
I always like to post the colors I use, so as I progress they'll be listed in the text.

Well, as long as you replace the "we" with "you!" Your color knowledge is really invaluable. :thumbup

UPDATE: Nov 13th

Looking a little more colorful now! Got the dome and lower cheeks done. This was one of those colors I went back and forth with many times. As I just mentioned, Ryan was a tremendous help in narrowing down the choices. What I went with was Polly Scale RLM 78 Lt. Blue. As military modelers may know, RLM colors are Luftwaffe colors.

Since this is by no means a pristine helmet, I decided to slightly tone down the RLM 78 with Polly Scale RLM 65. This is pretty similar to the RLM 78 but with a more grayish cast to it. I just misted it on unevenly. I think it gives a very slight oxidized look to the base color. It's hard to even see in these pics.

It sure was strange airbrushing this color onto the helmet!
More to come.

Well, now it's really starting to look like something! Got a couple more stages done. I got the upper cheeks painted using PRR Brunswick Green. I don't mask anything when I do the dark cheek crescents, I do them by hand. I just make sure I don't have any caffeine for a couple of hours beforehand.
After they had dried for several hours, I masked off everything but the mandibles/band in preparation to airbrush them. I used Floquil Caboose.
A couple of interesting points about the PP1 which I just noticed today. The red area just in front of the left ear isn't painted evenly all the way to the base of the helmet. It sort of fades about 2/3 of the way down. I tried to mimic this as closely as I could.

In front of the right ear, there's no red at all! I'll touch this area up with some of the Intermediate Blue once the Caboose is dry.
I also began some of the silver areas, starting with the Borden connector.

Did the silver chips on the rear panels as well.

That's all the silver visible in my reference pics. If anyone has other shots showing more comprehensive angles of the back of the helmet I'd love to see them!
The only "major" area left to paint is the left ear. It's raw metal so I'll have to test a couple of shades of Model Master metalizers to see which will best match the reference.
After that, it's more measuring and templates for the damage on the mandibles and dome.

I mean this in the best possible way.... I hate you, in your face-thingy.

That paint is wicked. And if someone told me that helmet had made it that far in 2 days, I'd be callin bs. (if I hadnt been watchin it like a lil kid watchin a puppy through a pet store window the whole time, of course). lol

When I get ready to do my pre pro, I might have to beg you to paint my bucket.